


On Borrowed Time

by PenguinofProse



Series: Season 7 speculation [3]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: AU of 7.05, F/M, Happy Ending, Some angst, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, married Bellarke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24846202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenguinofProse/pseuds/PenguinofProse
Summary: Inspired by 7.05, but with a good dose of implausible time travel. In which Bellamy's ring in that explosion scene is no accident, and he and Clarke have some interesting time travel misadventures. With some "Time Traveller's Wife" type vibes and a less-than-coherent interpretation of space-time.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Series: Season 7 speculation [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783594
Comments: 8
Kudos: 120





	On Borrowed Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OnlyZouzou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyZouzou/gifts).



> Hello and welcome to a spot of time-travelling chaos inspired by 7.05. Please note that I've decided to ignore canon and have the Bridge enable time travel. Huge thanks to Zouzou for the prompt and to Stormkpr for betaing. Happy reading!

Clarke has fought in a number of wars. Too many wars, she would tell you without hesitation. More wars than any young woman should have to fight. She's fought wars against sworn enemies, and wars against misguided friends. She's fought a war in her own head, and lived to tell the tale.

Never before has she fought a war against time.

…...

Bellamy leaves Sanctum.

So far, so straightforward.

He leaves Sanctum, and he doesn't come back. Clarke doesn't think about that for a while. She _notices_ it, of course, but she doesn't allow herself to dwell on it. Bellamy's a grown man, and he has his sister and Echo and Gabriel at his side. He survived six years in space without Clarke checking up on him every five seconds, so he should be fine now.

She's not the same young woman who once stood around while he was in Mount Weather and panicked every time he was late checking in. She knows that they can survive time apart, now, and that they'll get back on with truly _living_ when they're together again.

By the second day, she's beginning to fret. She just lost her mother, and she nearly lost Madi, and her nerves are sitting a bit too close to the surface, OK? She knows Bellamy can take care of himself, but she doesn't want him to have to do that. She wants him to live a peaceful life, close to her – just in case she needs to take care of him, for whatever reason. In fact, she's starting to think she'd rather not let him out of her sight ever again.

Then a stranger wearing invisible armour shows up, and Clarke knows it's time for her to leave Sanctum, too.

…...

Clarke arrives on Nakara.

It's cold, so cold that it even feels _dangerous_. There's no sign of an anomaly stone anywhere.

She's annoyed with herself for not planning this a bit more carefully, now. She's usually one to use her head. It would have been sensible to grab some equipment, and to choose a planet by some more rational method than random chance.

But Bellamy's in danger, so sense seems to have fallen by the wayside.

They go looking for the Anomaly stone, because that's their only route out of here, and Miller is very vocal about his desire to get the hell out of here. Clarke isn't so sure, though. For all she knows, these people live underground, or on a space station orbiting their planet – or both. It seems lazy and foolish to leave this planet without scouting it out a bit more thoroughly. She's trying to be sensible, here, for all that her frayed emotions are not making it easy.

But it is damn cold.

Raven wins, in the end. She's got the helmet, so she has the knowledge – and a hostile unexplored planet is definitely one environment where knowledge is power.

She tells them that the Anomaly stone is in a cave, and that her helmet shows her the way to the cave, and off they go.

Clarke is frustrated, as they slog through snowdrifts. She needs to get to Bellamy – he's being held captive by hostiles. Anything could be happening to him right now. And if these people are so keen to capture _her_ then she reckons it's a fair assumption that they're pulling no punches in exerting pressure on Bellamy to feed them information and prepare for her arrival. She's pretty certain it would only take three minutes inside Bellamy's head for them to realise he knows a little too much about her. Sure, he has a girlfriend, but Clarke feels confident in the strength of their bond all the same.

That's why she's currently half-jogging through a snowdrift for him.

The cave is a relief, when they first arrive. It is dry, and very marginally warmer, sheltered as it is from the biting wind outside.

But that relief is short-lived when they hear the noises.

"What's that?" Miller asks, thoroughly unhelpful.

It's a good thing he's an old friend, Clarke thinks. She hasn't much patience for people who ask stupid questions when she's trying to save Bellamy.

"It sounded like something moving." Niylah states the obvious.

It seems like her impatience extends to former lovers, as well.

"Did it come from behind us?" Jordan asks, contributing absolutely nothing to the headline task of, you know, _rescuing Bellamy_.

That does it. "Shut up, all of you. Keep moving." She orders them, uncharacteristically short.

She did not need Bellamy to go missing so soon after the Primes wreaked havoc on her life. It's not doing her self-control any good.

They keep moving. They tread on bones, in the darkness, and pretend that they do not notice. They keep hearing noises, too, but after her uncharacteristic outburst it seems like her friends are more scared of Clarke's disapproval than what is probably a stray snow rat or some such.

Only then it turns out that it is definitely _not_ a snow rat.

It's a spider. Not just a spider – an _enormous_ spider, the size of two people at least, with shining black eyes and furry limbs that seem to stretch on forever into the shadows at their feet.

Well, then.

This is a threat Clarke did not expect them to face.

Miller shoots first, because Bellamy trained him well, all those years ago. Niylah backs him up, standing shoulder to shoulder with Jordan, as they empty round after round into the oncoming spider.

It doesn't work. Still the creature advances, pincers clicking as if it can smell its next meal. The bullets are making no impact – it's like the thing is unstoppable.

It's nearly on them, now, and Clarke can smell rotting flesh and human fear. Miller backs up into Clarke. She backs up into the wall.

It's over.

No. It's not over after all.

The beast has stopped moving, and started listing alarmingly to one side. And then it falls, tumbling to the cave floor in a tangled mess of limbs, groaning a strange arachnid groan as it shivers and dies.

And there, standing right behind it, holding some strange weapon in an outstretched arm, is Bellamy Blake.

Because of course he is.

Clarke has never climbed over the legs of a giant spider before, but she does so with surprising grace, now, picking her way round the hairy limbs as she runs towards Bellamy.

He greets her with open arms, naturally, hugging her tight and burying his face in her neck in just that special way that makes her feel safe, and warm, and _loved_.

"This should be a good story." She murmurs as she pulls away from the hug. It is easier to joke again, somehow, now that Bellamy is here. That horrific week and her mother's death seem further away when he is close by.

"It is." He even grins at her, despite the dead spider and the snowy planet and the various reasons to be doing literally anything other than standing around and smiling. "But I'll tell you later. We need to get out of here."

"Where to?" Raven asks, joining the conversation.

"The Bridge stone is around the next corner. We're going to Etherea."

…...

Clarke has no idea what Etherea is, but she trusts Bellamy, so she holds tight to his hand and walks into the fog of green he has summoned by inputting a code into the stone. Raven takes her other hand, then Niylah, Jordan and Miller, as they all step forth into the unknown.

"Here we are." Bellamy announces, rather unnecessarily, when they come out the other side.

"Where's here?" Jordan asks, as Clarke takes in their surroundings. They're on some kind of scrubby grassland, that stretches away in an endless plain. Above them, a mountain rises straight out of the earth. The air is a little too warm, the sun a little too hot.

It doesn't exactly look like paradise.

"Etherea." Bellamy repeats. "Another planet connected to the Bridge. The home of the Resistance."

"The Resistance?"

"The Resistance against the people of Bardo." He explains, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world.

To be fair, it's hardly a surprise, from what little Clarke has seen of their behaviour so far.

"Another war. Just what we needed." Miller comments, cynicism out in full force.

Bellamy does not even pretend to be amused. "It's worse than that. The Bridge doesn't just link the planets. It can take you to any time on any of those planets. This war is being fought across _centuries_."

Clarke thought Josephine was the most disturbing threat she would ever face. She thought Praimfaya was the most ruthless, ALIE the most twisted.

It turns out she thought wrong.

…...

They walk for a long time. Bellamy explains to them that the Bridge stone is at the top of the mountain – one of the many reasons why the Bardoans do not find Etherea to be a desirable conquest, and why the Resistance have been able to set up here, running guerrilla missions against the enemy. The other disadvantage of Etherea is the climate, he explains – a bit too dry, a bit too hot. Add in the poor soils, and it's a sorry place to set up camp.

Clarke doesn't care. Any place where Bellamy is safe and well is a place she can feel at home.

Or rather, that would be true if only she had Madi at her side as well. Raven explains that Sanctum is now offline, according to her helmet, and that Clarke will have to trust Gaia to keep Madi safe for now.

She does trust Gaia. Really, she does. But Madi is her daughter, and she loves her, and she misses her so much it hurts – already, when they've scarcely been gone half a day.

One of these days, she will be allowed to live with both Bellamy and Madi, safe and together. That's her hopeless dream.

…...

The village is sweet, in a desperate, half-derelict kind of way. There are huts, and a tavern of sorts, and enough food to go around.

There is a bed for Clarke, in Bellamy's hut.

"You live here?" She asks, confused. "How did you get here?"

"The Bridge allows time travel." He shrugs. "Bardo captured me, I escaped. I found my way back here. I knew you'd be along today, so I decided to sit tight and wait for you. It gave me a chance to get to know the locals and help the Resistance."

No. There has to be more to the story than that.

She starts small.

"How long have you been here?"

He swallows. "Six months. I've done a few raids with the Resistance. But nothing risky, really – I wanted to be here when you arrived."

"What happened on Bardo?"

"They tried to destroy my mind. I pretended like it had worked so they'd teach me about the Bridge and let me go out on a mission, then I ran here."

"They tortured you?" She asks, and she can feel her composure shaking at the thought.

As if he can read her mind, he covers her hand with his own. "I'm OK. I'm fine. I've survived worse, haven't I?"

That thought is not as comforting as he wants it to be.

Clarke sits in contemplative silence for a moment, eats her supper. She spares a thought to hope that their friends are comfortable in the hut next door. It seems like Bellamy has produced satisfactory answers to most of her questions, but there's still one thing that's bothering her.

"Why am I living with you?"

He stiffens, evidently hurt and surprised.

"You don't have to -"

"I want to. Really. But – isn't this a bit quick? Wouldn't – Echo?" She trails off hopelessly.

Bellamy visibly swallows. "It's difficult. I guess I know our future now – I saw it on Bardo – so I just want to get on with it all at once, you know?"

"Our future?"

He stares at the floor. "I don't want to spoil it. I don't want you to end up with me because you have to. I want us to do it right."

"We end up together?" That seems the only logical interpretation of his words, but after all these years, she cannot bear to get her hopes up.

"Yeah."

She smiles, broad and true, and shifts her hand under his until she can intertwine their fingers. "I should have known." She tells him. "I think maybe I did know, but I was losing hope."

"Me too." He tells her, gaze warm. "And about Echo – I ended things with her before I found out about us. Just so you don't go blaming yourself. She made a terrible mistake. She did something really awful and it made me see that she isn't who I thought she was."

"Something awful? What do you mean?"

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry. It's her story to tell, if ever she can face it. But it helped me to see the truth. I stopped pretending we were right for each other and decided I ought to pluck up the courage to speak to you long before I saw our future."

"Speaking to me? Is that what you call this?" She teases him, heart light with joy.

He stops speaking her, then, and starts kissing her. It's not the most conventional way to begin a relationship, perhaps – nor the most romantic – but they're living on borrowed time, so it's plenty good enough for Clarke.

…...

Etherea is an appropriate name, Clarke decides, in the weeks and months that follow. This world is ethereal indeed – not in its robust heat or rough earth, but in the way it exists seemingly outside of time, floating in a pocket of peace in the midst of the ultimate war. A visitor wouldn't know it was a Resistance base, Clarke thinks. Most people spend their time in farming and hunting, and physical fitness, just as they used to do back on Earth. And every so often, a small band of people will disappear for the day, and an even smaller number will return, mourning their many casualties, and that is just how it is.

It's a strange kind of war, though, because of the messy timelines. The worst thing of all is when one of the villagers just blinks right out of existence, killed in a different time and place.

Clarke lives in fear of watching that happen to someone she loves.

Maybe that's what decides it, in the end. She misses Madi, and worries about her. Bellamy is still here, not going on missions but acting in an advisory role along with Clarke, but she worries about him, too. Apart from anything else, she doubts that the Bardoans are going to rest easy about the fact that he tricked them and ran off – she suspects that they will be looking for vengeance.

So she decides that there is something she ought to do, to put her mind at rest before it is too late. Before they are separated by time and space yet again.

"We should get married." She announces to Bellamy one morning.

She's a little nervous about it. They've been together in every sense of the word for a mere three months, but really, she supposes, they have been together for lifetimes.

He doesn't even blink. "You know, I always wondered who proposed. Figures it would be you."

"Of course. You know our future. So you knew we were going to get married?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to rush you." He swallows loudly. "I'm sorry, Clarke. I'm so sorry. I know this isn't romantic. I wanted better for you than a rushed marriage a million miles from home. And without Madi here, too."

"Don't apologise." She chastises him as kindly as she can. "Really. This is how it is, and that's OK, because we're together. And we'll be able to get back to Madi before any time has even passed for her just as soon as Raven gets Sanctum back online."

"What if she can't? What if she can't figure out how to fix it from here?"

"Bellamy. She's _Raven_. She'll do it. And Madi will be over the moon when we come home to her already married. She was always telling me we were too slow to get it together."

Bellamy laughs. "She's right there. Hey, Clarke. _Princess_. Will you marry me?"

Clarke grins, and presses a kiss to his neck. "I thought you'd never ask."

…...

It's not the wedding she planned out with Wells, when she was a little girl. The high society of the Ark do not crowd around to wish her well, and she is not wearing a dress made of silk and starlight.

She's wearing the same leather jacket she left Sanctum in, and a smile as bright as the sun.

Raven and Niylah are her bridesmaids, Miller stands at Bellamy's shoulder. In a twist of fate that has them all laughing, Jordan walks her down the aisle, saying that his parents wouldn't want her to be without a family member at her side.

Bellamy looks absolutely radiant. She's always found him attractive – that's obviously one of the very many reasons she is marrying him. But he has never looked as thoroughly beautiful to her as he does in this moment.

Based on the look in his eyes, he's thinking much the same about her.

They exchange simple vows and plain silver rings. One of the village elders conducts the ceremony, a firm-faced but surprisingly kind older man who is somehow a cross between Kane and Roan.

That thought makes Clarke smile even wider. If only the two of them were here, today, to see this. She doesn't suppose either of them would be surprised – she doesn't suppose anyone who has ever seen her and Bellamy so much as speak would be surprised, if she's being truly honest.

In a long life of twisted timelines and skewed priorities, today is a day that makes perfect sense.

…...

Clarke feels ridiculous, acting as an adviser in a war she knows nothing about. But the Resistance fighters of Etherea have the same myth as the monsters of Bardo – they say that she is the key to winning the last war humankind will ever wage.

She's beginning to wonder whether there is any such thing as _the last war_ , actually. It's certainly a claim she's heard before, and that has always turned out to be utterly and resoundingly wrong.

This war is a war like any other, in many ways. Bardo wish to expand their territory. Most of the Resistance fighters used to live on Skyring, once upon a time, before the Bardoans claimed it for their own – or after that, perhaps, bearing in mind the vagaries of time travel. A small minority of the Resistance are actually Bardoans themselves, having decided that torturing people, stealing their minds, and expanding into other people's homeland are not things they wish to see done in their name.

Bellamy seems to have become something of a talisman to the Resistance, in the few short months he's been here. Clarke can understand that – he's a useful man to have around in a war, she can testify to that herself. But he seems uncomfortable with it, now. He's a very different man from the younger Bellamy who brought down Mount Weather. He had six years in space without her to practise using his head, and it shows.

"I understand why we're fighting." He laments, one night as they lie in bed. "I get it – these people want their home back. And what Bardo do is terrible. But I just wish there was another way other than killing."

"Me too." She agrees, curling into his side and giving thanks, as she does every evening, that he has made it safely through another day.

"But Bardo won't give Skyring back. So we fight."

"What if they didn't need to give Skyring back? What if they could have a new home?" She thinks out loud.

Bellamy snorts. "This is the only other planet with a breathable atmosphere that's uninhabited and online on the Bridge. The soil is crap and the climate's not great for farming. And there's nothing better within a decent length flight, either."

"But you think that idea would work, in theory? You don't think it's... pride pushing them to get their _old_ home back? You think any good home would be OK?" She persists in asking, because Bellamy knows the feelings of the Resistance far better than she does.

"I think if there was any other option, they'd take it. They're tired of fighting."

Clarke goes to sleep feeling more optimistic than she has done in months.

…...

Clarke sets out to find Raven and Jordan the next day. There is a sort of basic workshop in the village, and the two of them tend to be there, trying to figure out how to get Sanctum back online.

Clarke is about to give them another impossible task to do.

"Hey. Jordan, Raven. How's it going?"

"I know that face." Raven accuses her cheerfully.

"What do you mean?"

"That face means you have a plan and it's going to take me a lot of work."

"Not quite. I've got a plan and it's going to take _both_ of you a lot of work." Clarke helps herself to a seat, and explains. "We could stop the war if only we can find everyone somewhere to live. Bardo expanded onto Skyring because they don't want to live underground. They shouldn't have taken Skyring, but you can understand their problem. The Resistance are fighting to get it back because the land here isn't good for farming. What if we could fix that? What if we could find a way to give both sides a good home?"

"What if _we_ could find a way, you mean." Raven corrects her.

"We can do it." Jordan pipes up, before Clarke has even finished laying out her vision.

"Jordan -"

"We can do it. Fertiliser, a little cloud seeding, and this place would be good as anything. I'm a Green, Clarke. I can do fertiliser."

"We could expand the bunker on Bardo, too. If they agree to share Skyring peacefully." Raven suggests. "A kind of incentive to get them to take the deal."

"So it's a plan?" Clarke asks, surprised that her friends are so positive about it.

"Yeah." Raven swallows. "Might have to put the Sanctum Bridge stone on the back burner for now, though."

Clarke frowns. That's her route to Madi. That's the door back into the life of her precious daughter.

But this is the war that could destroy the last of the human race. This is a viable opportunity for peace.

This could be the key to everything.

"Once I fix it, you'll be able to go back in time to right after it was broken." Raven points out. "Even if it's years for you, Madi won't even know you're gone."

That settles it. They have a war to stop.

…...

Clarke has made peace deals before, and she sincerely hopes she will never have to make one again, after this.

This is supposed to be the last war humankind will ever wage, after all.

The Resistance capture a hostage on one of their guerrilla missions to Skyring and bring him home. They choose well – he's a level twelve, so he has some actual knowledge of how Bardo works, and most importantly, he should have some influence when he returns home.

Clarke has sent a message with a hostage before. She sent Emerson back to Mount Weather, and that didn't turn out so well. This time, instead of threats and bluster, she writes a letter. That seems more in keeping with her more peaceful approach, these days.

"Give this to your leader." She exhorts the hostage. "It's an invitation to peace talks. I hope he'll give it serious consideration."

To her surprise, the hostage nods. "He will. Our people are tired of fighting, too. He's worried more people will defect to the Resistance if we keep it up."

That, Clarke decides, is a useful nugget of information. A little taken aback that he volunteered it so easily, she thanks him for his help.

"No problem. I'll tell Anders you treated me well and seem like reasonable people to negotiate with."

Years later, on another world, in another time, she will learn that the hostage's name is Levitt.

…...

Clearly, this Anders fellow _does_ give her letter serious consideration. She can tell this, because he arrives on Etherea at exactly the date and time she invited him to talk.

He is almost reasonable, which ought to be a red flag. Anyone who leads a society which specialises in destroying people's brains has no business being reasonable.

But as it is, they are able to conclude their business quickly. He points out that Bardo has the upper hand in the war, uses that as leverage to ensure the terms are very favourable towards his people. But nevertheless they do successfully come to terms, and that is that.

It turns out that Clarke is the key to _ending_ the last war humankind will ever wage.

…...

The war is over now – or then. That's the problem with time travel, is that the war will never truly be over. But it is over in this section of the timeline, at least, and save for occasional Resistance fighters blinking out of existence as they are killed in some other moment, Etherea learns to live in peace.

Raven keeps working on the Bridge, and on fixing the link to Sanctum. Jordan keeps working with the farmers of Etherea, fertilising soil and transforming lives.

Clarke and Bellamy don't have much to do, except make love and talk of the future. The future is an abstract concept, perhaps, given the messy tangle of timelines, but they give it a go all the same.

"I can't wait to get back to Madi." Bellamy offers, playing absently with his wedding ring. It's a habit of his Clarke has noticed since the day they married – as if he just likes to remind himself it's still there.

"Me too." She says, smile slightly sad. She knows that no time will have passed for Madi when they return, but the year spent on Etherea without her daughter has felt like an eternity to Clarke.

"What do you think she'll say when we tell her all about this? A war in time and us getting married without her?"

"I don't think she'll be surprised about either." Clarke speaks the candid truth, half happy, half heartbreaking.

…...

They're heading back to Sanctum tomorrow.

Raven has managed to get it back online. She's even managed to open access to Earth remotely, into the bargain. So tomorrow they will go home, back to Madi, and start the family life that has been denied to them for too long.

So, of course, this is the day that everything goes wrong.

Clarke is packing up the last of her spare clothes, laughing at Bellamy as he asks whether they can take his cactus collection with them back to Sanctum. Of course he has a cactus collection, here on this inhospitable planet where they have made a fleeting home for themselves, and where cacti are the only things that thrive. He really is an expert at making lemonade when the universe presents him with lemons.

The two of them are, in short, minding their own business.

Then Anders knocks at their front door.

It's a shock. Of course it's a shock. It's a shock that he came here in person, and with the mess that is their timeline, it's a shock that Bellamy didn't see it coming.

"You have to come with me, Bellamy." Anders announces without preamble.

Clarke watches Bellamy reel in horror. He stays still, of course, because he's the strongest person she has ever met, but she knows him well enough to read dismay in the firm line of his jaw.

"Why?" He bites the question out, sharp.

"We have your sister – now, in this time. We'll let her go if you'll come with me back to an earlier part of the war."

"To do what?"

"To give us your sister." Anders says, as if that makes any sense.

Clarke is sick to death of this endless, timeless war.

"What do you mean, give you my sister?"

"The information in her head was invaluable in giving us an advantage in the war. That upper hand won us the favourable terms of the peace treaty. This has already happened, but the loop can't be closed until you travel back in time and get her to cooperate with us."

"You want _me_ to coerce my sister into cooperating with you? Into having _already_ cooperated with you?" Bellamy asks, disbelieving.

"If you do, she'll remain unharmed. She'll be waiting for you in Sanctum the moment you get back." Anders sighs. "We're tired of fighting, too. We just want to close this last loophole and seal the treaty."

"Why should we trust you?" Clarke asks.

"I'll swear to it – no harm will come to either Bellamy or Octavia. I'll swear it on the soul of the Shepherd. Once this is done, we can all get on with our lives in peace."

Clarke knows Bellamy will go. Partly because this is how they get to peace, and secure the treaty. But largely because he still believes his sister is his responsibility, however hard he might pretend to have moved on from that.

…...

Clarke walks with Bellamy right up to the stone. It's a dizzying climb, scrambling up the mountain, but she's not leaving him in Anders' dubious company any sooner than she has to. Both she and Bellamy have chosen to carry rifles – a perfect example, she thinks, of their ability to move in unison without even having to speak about it out loud.

Bellamy says he'll come back for her. More specifically, he says he'll come back in time so he's gone only a second from her point of view.

So it is that Clarke watches the pair of them walk into the Bridge, and then stands and waits for Bellamy to return.

He doesn't come back in a second, but that's OK. She figures it was just a figure of speech, and he'll be back in a couple of minutes, so she perches on a spur of rock and waits.

He doesn't come back in a couple of minutes, either. In fact, by the time she's been there two entire hours he's still not back.

That's it. She's done waiting at home like some pathetic wife in some old-fashioned tome of outdated Earth literature.

She's going after him.

She stands. She checks her rifle. She tightens her left bootlace, because you should never go into battle with a loose bootlace.

Wracking her brain to remember everything Bellamy and Raven have told her about the stones, she keys in a code and walks straight into the Bridge.

…...

Clarke definitely comes out at the right place. The room she emerges into matches all Bellamy's descriptions of Bardo perfectly.

But just as she is certain that this is the right place, she is absolutely convinced that it is the wrong time.

Octavia's memories gave them an advantage towards the _start_ of the war, in Bardo time – Clarke remembers Anders saying that. But this does not look like the start of a war. This looks much more like the _middle_ of a war, as she takes in the scorch marks on the floor, and the occasional smear of blood.

She follows the trail of one particular streak of red. Follows it, in fact, right up to a locked door. She presses experimentally at the wall, and before she knows it, the door is springing open, and she is confronted with a most distressing sight.

The cupboard contains a heap of dead bodies.

The war is definitely well underway already.

With that ascertained, she tries to decide what her plan ought to be. Should she just march up to Anders, and inform him that she is the key to ending this thing, and demand that Bellamy be returned to her?

No. Surely that would not work, not if Anders betrayed their trust in the first place. And she has to presume that is what happened, seeing as Bellamy did not return to the place and time they agreed upon.

She gathers her courage, and sets out down the unfamiliar hallway.

…...

Clarke was hoping to see familiar faces here. She was hoping to see Octavia and Bellamy, obviously.

She was not expecting to walk straight into Echo screaming her lungs out.

It's a shocking development, all things considered. Echo does not scream. She frowns, and she threatens to kill people – sometimes she actually goes through with killing them – but she does not scream.

With a growing sense of dread, Clarke realises that something must have gone very wrong.

"What is it? What happened?" She bursts into the room.

The other occupants of the room are surprised to see her. Echo is still screaming, tears streaming down her cheeks, blood leaking sluggishly from the chest of the corpse behind her.

This looks bad, to say the least.

Octavia appears dazed, and confused, and at least a little broken. It seems that Clarke was right in her hunch that this is the middle of the war – this is surely some time _after_ Bellamy has got his sister to comply with the demands of the Bardoans.

If things went to plan up until then, that is.

Gabriel seems to still have his wits about him, but he doesn't look happy. And on the other side of Octavia is a young woman Clarke has never met, yet somehow vaguely recognises.

"Hope Diyoza." The woman introduces herself, stretching out a slightly bloodied hand. "You're Clarke, right?"

"How did you -?"

"Clarke?" Octavia looks up, meets her eyes. "Clarke. I'm so sorry, Clarke -"

"What do you mean, Octavia? Sorry for what?"

Octavia does not answer. She sniffles a little, mutters something about not being _afraid_ under her breath for no apparent reason. Gabriel will not meet Clarke's eye, and Hope is crying openly.

It is Echo who answers. It is Echo who stops making those horrific animalistic noises, and turns to Clarke, and breaks her heart.

"They killed him."

"Who?" Clarke asks, although in the depths of her soul she already knows the answer.

Echo shakes her head. Octavia just _shakes_ , trembling from head to toe.

"Bellamy." Hope whispers, confirming the worst.

Clarke nods. She nods carefully, heavily, with great control. She knew this might happen. This is why they got married while they were at peace. This is why she told him she loved him while she had the chance. She knew they were living on borrowed time, and so she ensured they made the most of every moment.

No. No, it's no good. She's only human, and in her grief she is certainly no hero.

"That's not right." She states, voice shaking. "I don't believe you."

It's not quite true. She does believe them – why would they lie? But denial is a natural part of grief, and she's still very much in shock.

Hope approaches her, then. The near-stranger who seems to know her too well places a gentle hand on her arm, steers her towards a screen. Shows her the footage there – her husband, hair tousled, freckles bright, wedding ring in pride of place on his finger.

And then he gets blown up.

There's no denying it, now. She's seen it with her own eyes – the footage clearly shows that Bellamy was involved in an explosion which filled the entire room with smoke. She can hear a loud keening sound, and it takes her a moment to realise that it is her own cry of mourning.

What the hell is she going to do now?

She remembers Anders swearing on the life of the Shepherd that nothing would happen to Bellamy or Octavia. But somewhere along the line, that was clearly not the truth.

That means the life of the Shepherd is forfeit, as far as she can see.

That thought has her frowning, even as she continues to sob noisily. She has learnt how to think things through even whilst crying, in years gone by – in fact, she's had quite a lot of practise at this particularly grim type of multitasking.

There is no sense in taking the life of the Shepherd. Bellamy is dead, and taking another life will not bring him back. All she can do is mourn him, and give thanks for the year they lived in married bliss while they had the chance. In fact, depending on how the timelines cross over, she might even meet him again one day.

Her priority, now, must be preserving the alliance. That's what Bellamy did, back in Sanctum, when she was dead as far as he knew. He prioritised peace, because he knew that was what she would want.

It is time for her to return the favour.

She allows herself to take in the rest of the room in more detail, now. The body in the chair is Echo's doing – so much is obvious from the rage in Echo's eyes and the horror in Gabriel's whenever he looks at her.

It's a funny thing, Clarke thinks. Both she and Echo are mourning Bellamy – the man they both love. But Clarke feels no great desire to lash out and scream.

She just wants to sit down and cry, but she can't do that until the peace treaty is secured.

Most of all she wants a hug. She wants one last Bellamy hug, and she's almost tempted to cross over her own timeline to go looking for it.

…...

They flit down the halls searching for Anders. Clarke isn't sure why the others stick with her, beyond the tempting comfort of staying with friends.

She's not actually sure if they are friends. She never met Hope before today, and Echo just needlessly murdered someone. Not to mention the fact that she's just been left a widow by Echo's boyfriend.

Time travel sucks.

Bellamy would laugh at that, she thinks. And Madi would giggle, then tell her affectionately that she isn't as funny as she thinks she is, and they'd have a lovely moment of family joy.

But that's never going to happen, now, because Bellamy's dead.

They talked a lot about Madi, during their time on Etherea. About the happy life the three of them would live together when they were reunited on Sanctum. And Clarke still wants that – she wants it so badly it makes her throat hurt – but she knows she can't have it. She knows that the best she can do now, is to secure peace, and to preserve that peace in honour of Bellamy's memory.

That thought makes her smile. The angry young man who used to wield a gun as if it were a butter knife, back when they were first on Earth – now being honoured by peace.

The others are arguing, as they stride down the corridors. Well, Gabriel and Echo are arguing – Hope is stonily silent, and Octavia doesn't look in any good state to argue with anyone.

"You didn't need to do that, Echo."

"I did what I had to do."

"No. No, you didn't. That was completely unnecessary. It was a mistake, and you know it."

Echo replies in turn, tone short and cold, but Clarke does not hear her. She's still hung up on Gabriel's words – on the idea that Echo made a _mistake_.

Because that reminds her of another conversation she had, worlds away. It reminds her of the day she first reunited with Bellamy on Nakara, and of him telling her that he broke up with Echo because she made a terrible mistake.

What is the murder of a bystander in a moment of anger, if not a terrible mistake?

Clarke mustn't get her hopes up. She knows it. Just because Bellamy has seen the aftermath of this moment, doesn't mean he's not dead. If there is one thing she has learnt, since she left Sanctum, it's that time is complicated. He might have known about Echo's mistake from some other cross-timeline journey of his own, and might really have died in that explosion.

There was no body, though. Now she comes to think of it, that stands out. And he was right next to the stone – what if he managed to jump through the Bridge before the explosion? What if something even more complicated was afoot – what if the explosion was how Anders wanted to assure Octavia's compliance?

Clarke is a woman of logic, not a delusional idiot. She cannot seriously claim that her husband is still alive just because of a missing body and one coincidence of phrasing.

But she can investigate it further. That would be a logical thing to do, she thinks. And she remembers what Bellamy did for her when Josephine was in her head – everyone else thought she was dead and gone, but Bellamy saw her Morse code and pursued every tiny shred of hope.

Isn't it only fair that she does the same thing for him, now?

She stops, dead, in the middle of the corridor, and turns to the others.

"We need to get out of here. Now."

…...

By the time they make it back to the stone, Clarke's brain is working at a mile a minute. She needs to get these four to safety – Octavia is a wreck, and Echo a liability, and Hope visibly strained with the effort of holding her composure together.

"We'll get your mother back." Clarke assures her kindly. She knows how losing a mother feels.

"How?"

"A peace treaty. It's complicated. You're just going to have to trust me."

Hope looks unconvinced, but Octavia joins in. "You can trust her, Hope. Always."

Clarke brightens a little at that unexpected vote of confidence, but only a very little. She has a theory to test out.

"You're going back to Sanctum." She tells the four of them, as they approach the stone and she starts putting in the code for them.

"We can't. The stone is offline." Octavia pipes up. "Levitt told me."

"Not any more. Raven fixed it. She thinks she managed to backdate it to the second it went out, but she said you might want to give it an hour to be on the safe side." She explains, completing the code. "Go on, guys. I'll be there soon."

"What are you doing first?" Octavia asks her, a little too perceptive.

Clarke says nothing. She waits for the Bridge to open, and for her friends and acquaintances to be swallowed whole.

…...

Clarke goes back to Earth.

It seems so simple, now. Of course she needs to go back to Earth. Surely it is obvious that Earth is where Bellamy would go to wait for her, if ever they got separated by time and space? It's where their story started, so clearly it is where she should go, now, to tie up loose ends.

She chooses the day before the dropship first landed. That will avoid any complications from them being in the same place and time twice, so she reckons that's the day Bellamy will have chosen, too.

If he's still alive, that is.

No. She can't think like that. She's going to go back to Earth, and see if he's there. And if he's not there, only then will she allow herself to fall apart and mourn.

She keys in the code, and walks into the Bridge.

…...

Bellamy hasn't come back.

He's not here.

He's not here.

He's not here.

She sobs.

He's not _anywhere_.

That has to be what this means. She knows him better than she knows her own name – she knows that he would meet her here, if he were still alive. So she knows that his absence now is the worst possible news.

She doesn't bother even trying to hold it together. There doesn't seem any point, now. When she's finished crying – in a few hours or days or years – she will step back onto the Bridge and finish tying up the loose ends of her peace treaty. But for now there is nothing to do but mourn.

She allows herself to scream a little, now. She can understand why Echo found that cathartic earlier, actually. She doesn't feel any particular temptation to lash out at any bystanders, though, and in fact there is no one around to lash out at, so she simply mourns alone.

She takes some of her grief out on herself – scrubbing at her damp cheeks with sharp fingernails, twisting her wedding ring on her finger until it is sore, in a gesture that has none of the comfortable reassurance of Bellamy's old habit. She kicks at a stone or two, but that doesn't make her feel any better, and it doesn't bring Bellamy back, so she gives up on it soon enough.

She ought to go home, she thinks, as she starts to calm down. She ought to go back to Sanctum, to the moment Raven got the stone online, and hug Madi as soon as possible. And then maybe she might make a journey to Etherea, and salvage Bellamy's ridiculous cactus collection. If that's the only thing she has from their marriage, the only possession she can hold onto, she supposes she ought to make the most of it.

No. That's foolish. The memories they made together will stay with her always. But she can no more hug a memory than she can hug a cactus, and that thought makes her thoroughly sad all over again.

Her weeping grows quieter with time. The daylight is failing, now, the sun sinking to the horizon and the air growing chill.

She's still tearful, still struggling to hold it together. She might just stay here for the night, she decides. Just until her composure is a little more solid, so that she doesn't upset Madi with her fresh, raw grief.

Yeah, OK, it also occurs to her that Bellamy – the young Bellamy – is landing tomorrow. And she knows that he will be hundreds of miles away, and that she shouldn't cross over the timelines that drastically even if she could travel so far.

But as she drifts into a tearful, restless sleep, it is a comfort to think that they might find themselves on the same planet again, just one last time.

…...

Clarke is confused when she wakes up, and she doesn't like being confused.

There's a green light, bright and dazzling in her sleep-sore eyes as the Bridge kicks into action. There's a figure emerging from the light, broad and not too tall, in an ill-fitting cardigan, with a wedding ring glinting on his finger.

He's alive.

Bellamy's _alive_ , and he's here. And she's not a widow – or at least, not _yet_ a widow, and the war to end all wars has not ended her dream of a happy family life after all.

He's alive, and he's also _late_.

She tells him that, in tearful whispers in between throwing herself into his arms and pressing her lips to his cheek and his neck and his lips and even, in a dizzy fit of joyful enthusiasm, the shell of his ear.

"I'm sorry." He murmurs back at her. "I'm so, so sorry. Anders didn't do it how I wanted him to. He put the code in, sent me to the wrong time and place. He made me stage my own death to my sister, too. I begged him not to." His voice breaks. "I begged him so much. But he threatened her life. And I need her to survive, and I need the treaty to survive."

"It's OK. You're OK." She soothes.

"It's not OK. I get it now. I sent my own sister out of her mind. I sent Echo so crazy with grief she killed that man. It's all my fault, Clarke. I should have been stronger, should have found another way to stop Anders from making me -"

"Bellamy." She cuts him off. "You remember a long time ago, and less than a month from now, when you and I sat under a tree and I forgave you?"

He nods, jaw tense with guilt.

"Shall we go find a tree to sit under? Or will it work if I tell you here? You're not a monster. Octavia will be OK – she's alive, and she'll heal. And Echo is responsible for her own actions. All you can do is do your best with the impossible choices you face – and that's all you've ever done, Bellamy. But if you need forgiveness, I'll give that to you."

He answers her with a kiss. And then one kiss leads to another, and another, until they find themselves sinking down to the forest floor beneath a nearby tree for rather different reasons.

They'll go back to their family soon, but first Clarke wants to take a moment to enjoy this little pocket in time.

…...

Clarke and Bellamy leave the Earth.

They've left the Earth before – he has done so more times than she has, in fact, and left her behind once before, too. But this is the first time that they leave the Earth hand in hand, walking together not into the unknown but into a future they have been preparing for almost since they first met.

They get back to Sanctum.

They hug Octavia, who promises she will be OK, and thanks her brother for looking out for her – yet again. She adds another point this time, though, asking him if maybe he might stop sacrificing himself for her, now. It's getting old, she says, with a strained smile. She'd rather he retired from that duty.

They hug Madi, who takes the news of their misadventure in her stride. Clarke wonders if she did her daughter a disservice, bringing her up on tales of Mount Weather and the end of the Earth. Madi now seems to think it is perfectly normal for her mother to be sidetracked by stopping the last war humankind will ever wage, and to return home married to the man she has talked about for decades. The girl does blink in shock at the news that they've been travelling in time and have enjoyed almost a year together since the wedding, but then Bellamy moves on to explaining about the cacti he left behind, and Madi doesn't seem to find that surprising in the slightest.

The get back to Sanctum, and they resolve that they will never leave it again.

…...

Clarke has fought in a number of wars. Too many wars, she would tell you without hesitation. More wars than any young woman should have to fight.

But she understands, now, that the fighting is not the important part. Fighting is not all that they are. She's grown up, since she fought the people of Mount Weather or took down the City of Light, and learnt a thing or two about ceasefires and peace treaties and finding a better way.

She's proud to say that she has even stopped a war against time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
